“The Tung Lin Kok Yuen Conference: Visualizing and Performing Buddhist Worlds”
will take place from November 2 to 3,
bringing renowned Buddhist scholars and artists to Toronto
for this pioneering event and conference. In connection with the
conference, several special events are free and open to the public
and are being held at the University of Toronto Scarborough campus and
the Royal Ontario Museum.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2

4:30 p.m. –Artist’s
talk and showing: Contemporary artist Will
Kwan, recent Snider Fellowship Artist in Residence at U of T
Scarborough, unveils and discusses his specially-commissioned work,
The Reservoir. It is an installation of videos and photography
described as a search for potential moments of transcendence amidst
modern Buddhist art on Lantau Island, off the coast of urban Hong
Kong. Room AA-304.

5:30 p.m. –Art exhibition
opening:Reincarnation, an exhibition of
contemporary artworks exploring Buddhist themes, opens at the Doris
McCarthy Gallery, University of Toronto Scarborough (located on the
upper floor of the Academic Resource Centre across from the
bookstore). The Buddha image is no longer solely a symbol of one
belief system, but rather a visual form that fosters questions rather
than answers. This exhibition consists of paintings, sculptures, video
installations and photography by artists from China, the United
States, Tibet, and Korea. The exhibit demonstrates how Buddhist
imagery has been adopted in contemporary art practice and how close it
is to our daily life in the context of globalization. Visit the web
site for the Doris McCarthy Gallery at www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~dmg/.

7:00 p.m. -Curator’s talk:
Given by internationally renowned curator Zheng
Shengtian, Managing Editor of Yishu - Journal of
Contemporary Chinese Art, Curator of the 2004 Shanghai Biennale,
Doris McCarthy Gallery, University of Toronto Scarborough. The curator
discusses the works he brought together for the Reincarnation exhibit
as part of a walking tour of the gallery.

8:00 p.m. –Opening
lecture: Professor of Asian Art Eugene Wang
(Harvard) discusses “Buddhist Art as Mental Theatre: How was
Repentance Pictured in Medieval China?” This lecture will
examine mural paintings from Dunhuang and explore what it means for a
repentance ritual to be painted rather than enacted. University of
Toronto Scarborough, Academic Resource Centre (ARC) lecture theatre.
Room AC223.

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We wish to acknowledge this land on which the University of Toronto operates. For thousands of years it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. Today, this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this land.